This Is Not Just About Trans Women. This Is About All Women.

There’s a lie being told, and it’s one that puts every woman in danger.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, the word “woman” refers only to so-called “biological women.” Even trans women with Gender Recognition Certificates are excluded. This wasn’t a fringe opinion. It was unanimous. And it's being celebrated by the same voices who’ve spent years undermining trans rights, all under the familiar guise of “protecting women.”

But let’s be clear: this is not about safety. It never was.

This ruling is not protection. It is exclusion. It is a dangerous legal endorsement of suspicion, surveillance, and gender policing, not just for trans women, but for any woman who doesn’t “look right.” It reduces womanhood to a performance. And it demands that you prove your identity to be respected. Spoiler: you can’t. Not without turning your entire existence into a narrow test.

And once that test exists, it never stops with trans women. It spreads. It always does.

Let’s Talk About “Biological Reality”

Hands up if you’ve ever seen your own chromosomes. Not phenotype, not what you see on the outside, your own chromosomes. No? Me neither. And yet that’s the standard now being set for defining your rights. Not your lived experience. Not your identity. Not your safety. Just the assumption of something you’ve never verified and had no say in.

It’s absurd, and it’s dangerous.

Biology is not simple. Intersex people exist. People with Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome, androgen insensitivity. Even medical experts don’t always agree on what counts as “biological sex.” So if you think this ruling only hurts trans women, you’re not paying attention.

What it actually does is open the door to performance-based womanhood. You don’t look like a woman. You don’t dress like a woman. You’re not acting like a woman should. That’s where we’re heading. That slope isn’t slippery. It’s greased.

And conveniently, this ruling says nothing about trans men. Funny, isn’t it? If this were really about “biological sex,” wouldn’t they be forced into women’s spaces too? But they’re not, because this isn’t about chromosomes. It’s about punishing trans women for existing.

And let’s ask the obvious: how exactly is this supposed to be policed? Feminists fought for decades not to be reduced to our wombs, our “femininity,” or how well we fit into sexist ideas of what a woman should be. This ruling is a backward step. It codifies everything we once resisted.

Trans Women Are Not the Threat. Misogyny Is.

Let’s be brutally honest: I have never felt unsafe around a trans woman. Not once.

I have been catcalled in school uniform. Groped walking into class. Grabbed in clubs. Harassed and threatened for nudes and so much more. And yet every single one of those moments came at the hands of cis men. We all know who the danger is, we just don’t want to look directly at it.

So instead, we turn on the people trying to get out. Trying to live.

Trans people are already at greater risk of homelessness, violence, suicide, and discrimination.

When you strip away their legal recognition, you take away their access to: Healthcare that understands them, Employment where they’re safe, Education where they’re respected, Shelters that will actually let them in, You don’t make anyone safer by making someone else more vulnerable. This isn’t caution. It’s cruelty. According to Stonewall’s 2018 LGBT in Britain: Health Report, one in seven trans people have been refused care because of their identity, and two in five avoid seeking care altogether due to fear of discrimination.

It’s prejudice dressed up as protection. Women are raped in prisons by male guards. Harassed in changing rooms by men who don’t care what the sign on the door says.  A predator doesn’t need a trans identity to hurt women. He just needs opportunity, power, and the confidence that society will look away. And it does. It always does.

Want to make women safer? Change rape laws. Fund refuges properly. End femicide. Address misogyny in boys and men. Improve healthcare. Support single mothers.  This verdict doesn't change the fact that the prosecution rate for rape and sexual assault is so low its effectively become decriminalised, doesnt change the fact that every 3 days a woman is killed by a man in the UK. Cis women and girls are no safer by going after trans people. And no evidence supports the idea that trans women pose a threat in women’s spaces. In countries where self-ID laws exist, like Ireland and Argentina, there has been no increase in assaults or safety issues. A 2021 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found no link between trans-inclusive policies and increased risk to cisgender women in public spaces. Similarly, Ireland introduced gender self-ID in 2015, and the Department of Justice has confirmed no recorded increase in incidents in women-only spaces since.

Because here’s the real kicker: this ruling doesn’t just hurt trans women. It will increase attacks on cis women, too, especially those who don’t “look” feminine enough. Women who are tall, butch, gender non-conforming, women post-mastectomy, women with PCOS, athletic women. It gives harassers more ammunition, and we’ve already seen it happening.

And if you still arent convinced, try and name five trans people and explain exactly how they have personally harmed you or negatively impacted your life... 

Let’s Call This What It Is: A Culture War Imported and Funded

Before billionaire-backed campaigners imported this panic, trans people lived their lives quietly in this country. Trans women used women’s spaces, and no one batted an eyelid.

Now? A tiny, marginalised group, just 0.5% of the UK population, is being used as cannon fodder. Dehumanised in newspapers. Vilified by politicians. Ignored by courts. We saw it when Brianna Ghey was murdered, and then degraded again in death by the same voices who’d refused to see her as real in life. She was not a metaphor. She was a child.

Imagine just half the energy used to campaign against trans rights had gone instead into:

• Fighting the underfunding of women’s refuges

• Fighting for single mums

• Fighting for low-paid women

Compared to this anti-trans obsession, which would’ve had more impact on women’s lives?

A good rule of politics is: if the Daily Mail is celebrating, justice probably isn’t what just happened. Those who have fought trans rights got their “great victory” at the Supreme Court. So now they’ll move on to things that actually help women, right?

Nope they won’t. Because nothing will ever satisfy people obsessed with the existence of trans people. All this ruling achieves is to make trans people more scared, and their lives more difficult.

If you’re someone who’s unsure, or feels confused by the headlines, that’s okay. You’re not the enemy. But please, ask yourself: who benefits from this fear? And who is being harmed by it?

The Fire and the Fire Exit

You’re in a burning building. People are panicking. Smoke everywhere. Lives are at risk. But there’s a fire exit,  a clear way out, built to save lives.

Then someone says,
“Let’s lock this door… just in case someone pretending to be a firefighter uses it to sneak in.”

And so the door gets locked.
Not because anyone suspicious is actually there. Not because anyone’s misused it.
But because someone might, theoretically, possibly, abuse it.

That’s what this ruling does.

In this analogy:

• The burning building is our society - already hostile, dangerous, and discriminatory for trans people.

• The fire is transphobia, violence against women and girls, and systemic neglect - the real threat.

• The fire exit is legal gender recognition and protections - something that helps real people escape harm and live safely.

• The “fake firefighter” fear is the baseless idea that cis men will pretend to be trans women to gain access to women’s spaces.

So instead of focusing on the actual danger, the fire that’s already spreading, we lock the one route out for the people who need it most.
We criminalise the people trying to survive, while ignoring the ones doing the harm.

This isn’t safety.
It’s suspicion over compassion. Cruelty dressed up as caution. Prejudice wrapped in legal language.

We should not be locking exits to stop people who don’t exist, while real people are already burning.

This Hurts All Women

This ruling doesn’t just make life harder for trans women. It makes life more dangerous for every woman who doesn’t “perform” femininity in the way someone else thinks she should. Butch lesbians. Tall women. Women with facial hair. Women who’ve had mastectomies. Gender non-conforming girls in school. They’re all more at risk now.

This turns women’s spaces from sanctuaries into checkpoints.

It sends a message to all women, cis and trans alike: your body is public property. You will be watched. Judged. Questioned. And if you don’t pass the test, you will be excluded. That isn’t feminism. That’s authoritarianism.

My feed is full of middle-aged, middle-class, mostly white women and men celebrating. Singing. Popping champagne. And then there are the trans people, feeling frightened, vilified, more vulnerable than before. That contrast says everything.

There Is No “Trans Debate”

There is no debate. There are trans people. And there are people trying to erase them.

When states start narrowly defining who “counts” as a woman, it never stops at one group. It spreads into sports, education, healthcare. It leads to people being denied medication, excluded from services, turned away at doors. Ask anyone who’s been told they’re “too masculine” to be believed. Or “too queer” to deserve help.

This is not hypothetical. It is history repeating.

Rainbow Europe, an organisation that ranks countries based on their legal protections for LGBTQ+ people, scored the UK first in 2014. In 2025, we’re now ranked 15th. That decline didn’t come from nowhere.

We Don’t Have to Accept This

This ruling didn’t make women safer. It made discrimination legal. It made trans lives harder. It emboldened bigots and endangered anyone who doesn’t “pass.”

But we do not have to accept it.

We don’t have to let billionaires and judges define womanhood. We don’t have to let newspapers turn marginalised lives into headlines. We don’t have to stay silent while our trans siblings are hounded, excluded, and erased.

If you care about women, you must care about trans women.
If you care about safety, you must care about solidarity.
If you care about freedom, you must care about self-determination.

Our liberation has always been collective. Every step forward has been because we refused to be divided. So don’t let them split us now.

Trans women are women. That’s not just a slogan. That’s solidarity.

And solidarity is how we survive.

If You’ve Been Affected

If this news has impacted you, or you’re feeling scared, isolated, or overwhelmed, you are not alone. Here are some organisations offering support, community, and solidarity:

• Switchboard – A confidential LGBTQ+ helpline, open every day. You can call 0800 0119 100 or chat online. They listen without judgement.

• Stonewall – Advocacy, information, and community for LGBTQ+ people. Their resources cover your rights, navigating discrimination, and how to get support.

• Gendered Intelligence – Offers resources, support groups, and youth work for trans, non-binary, and gender diverse people, particularly young people.

• Spectra – London-based service offering counselling, peer support, and health services for LGBTQ+ people, especially trans and non-binary individuals.

• TransActual UK – Run by and for trans people. Their website has stories, legal info, and healthcare guidance.

• TransTherapy.Life – A free mental health resource library specifically for trans and non-binary people, with reading materials, worksheets, and coping strategies.

You are real. You are valued. You deserve to be safe and supported. Please reach out if you need to.